Your Writer's Web Site - Use it to Get Writing Jobs

Do you realize that you can write your way to riches online? As the saying goes, content is king online, and you can use your own content to profit. In this article you'll discover how to get writing jobs via your writer's Web site.

1. It's All About Content: Help Buyers Find You

Let's start by looking at how the Web works. People search for information and products online. They search using specific words and phrases. For any site's page to come up in the search query results, it must include the words the searcher typed into a search engine.

Therefore, think about your writer's Web site and the keywords (search terms) you need to include for buyers of your writing to find you.

Would you include the words "writing jobs" on your site's pages? You probably wouldn't, because you wouldn't attract buyers.

Would you include the words "content writer" or "medical writer" on your site's pages? Chances are that if that describes what you do, you would, because it would help buyers to find you.

2. Building Your Name: Add Material to Your Portfolio to Show What You Can Do

New writers tend to think of their Web site as a brochure, rather than as an ever-expanding hub of their writing activities.

The words on your site are vitally important: they have two functions. The first is to get buyers (traffic) to your site.

The second is to enhance buyers' credibility and trust, so that they hire you when they're looking for a writer.

Here's a big tip: have FUN on your Web site. The more your personality and enthusiasm show through on your site, the more likely it is that buyers will bookmark your site, and will hire you next time they need a writer. Buyers are looking for YOU.

Believe it or not, it's hard to find competent, reliable writers. Finding such a writer (you) is gold to buyers. You can turn one-time buyers into steady clients, bringing you thousands of dollars of income every year.

So add content to your site -- as much as you can. Add pages, and add your portfolio too. Your portfolio is social proof that others have hired you.

3. Create a Marketing Plan for an Ever-Increasing Income

Your site's traffic is the barometer of the health of your writing career. No matter how small your traffic is initially, it will grow. You'll start with five visitors a day, then 50, and then 500. Once your site's traffic hits 500 visitors, I promise you that you'll have more buyers of your writing than you can handle.

So create a marketing plan to increase traffic to your site, and do one marketing task a day. It will pay off beyond your dreams.

Want to make a great income from your writing? Angela Booth's "Sell Your Writing Online NOW" Training Program at http://sellwritingnow.com/Home/training.html gives you all the skills you need to make great money writing for the Web. A subscriber recently said: "Your training has inspired me - I'm on Lesson 14, and I'm making enough money to quit my day job"

For free weekly writing information sent to your Inbox, subscribe to Angela's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at http://www.freelancewritingezine.com/ and receive "Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report" immediately

My Book of Truth

Many years ago, when I was still in college, my mother sent me a newspaper article in which a woman described a nun who had influenced her during her years growing up in a Catholic school. She described her relationship with this wonderful lady who was also the school's librarian. Both being avid readers, they had found each other and connected through their mutual love of books.

The years past and time came for the writer to graduate and leave the school. The librarian nun gave her, as a graduation gift, a little journal. In this little book, the nun had recorded her thoughts over the course of many years. She based her entries on a simple concept. When she found something to be true, she would record it in her journal.

The writer admitted that at the time she received this precious gift, she was very young and did not truly appreciate its value.

Some years later, the writer heard that her dear friend had past away. Upon hearing this, she remembered the little journal. After some digging through things packed away, she found the little book. She opened it and for the first time read it for the jewel it was.

The insights she found recorded there by the quiet nun were so moving and astute that she, in turn, felt compelled to write an article and share the story with others.

Fortunately that was the article my mother sent me. I was captivated by the idea of recording what one found to be true, so I went out and purchased a new, crisp paged journal of my own.

Through the years, starting November 9, 1994 (first page inscription), I have plied the simple concept - when I find something to be true, I jot it down in my Book of Truth.

Now, more than fifteen years later, I have quite a collection, and from time to time, I will read through my book's pages. The entries serve me over and over as reminders of not only the events of my life which spawned the entries, but to act a reminder of the truths I have come to conclusion on.

I am reminded that although we are clever beings, capable of tremendous feats of grace, creativity, generosity, insight, gentleness, kindness and amazing intellectual leaps beyond, we can so easily forget the invaluable lessons cast our way over the course of a lifetime. We must, from time to time, be reminded of beauty, of peace and of truth.

My hope with this article is that perhaps upon reading this story, others will be inspired to start their own books of truth.

http://www.truthbeing.com

Things to Remember in Technical Writing

If there's one thing that differs technical writing from any other type of writing, it's the fact that it's, well, technical. You have to be more specific about the use of words. You can't help to add jargons into them. The real challenge of technical writing is how you can present a technical fact into something that can be easily digested by your readers.

Being a technical writer is definitely no easy feat. However, with the following 4 tips, it would not be too long before you start building your own reputation in the field:

1. Focus on certain technical areas. You have to develop your own niche. This way, it will be easier for you to keep tabs on the changes happening in your chosen field, such as the introduction of new technology or the shift of target audience. You can also conveniently build your reputation as the ultimate master or key figure in the niche you've picked. You know what materials to study and how you can integrate them into your articles.

2. Go down to the level of your target readers. You may understand the term "search engine optimization" but definitely not all of your target readers. Thus, as a technical writer, it is your duty to make sure that you can send your message across as clearly as possible. To accomplish this, you may have to place yourself into the shoes of your target readers. It will definitely help if you can provide short explanation, analogy, or example, to illustrate your point.

3. Keep it short as much as possible. If you can say one paragraph into two sentences, the better. The more words that you're going to say, the more it will become harder for your readers to understand what you mean. Be direct, precise, and accurate.

Jack S. Nguyen is a freelance developer and writer with over 10 years experience building commercial web sites and helping others establish home-based businesses. Jack regularly contributes freelance and work-at-home related product reviews to NetProductsReview.com

7 Mistakes in Article Writing

The most important thing to remember about article marketing is building trust between you and your potential customers. Your primary concern is to establish yourself as an expert in your niche so every word, sentence and paragraph of your articles should subtly communicate this to your readers through quality writing.

Unfortunately, too many authors think it's all right to bang out article after article hoping that quantity will override quality. The opposite is true. If you cannot avoid the following 7 mistakes in your article writing, you will sabotage your own efforts at article marketing.

Article Writing Mistake #1: Poor title

This is your headline and it needs to catch your reader's attention as well as potential publishers. Try to work in keywords but don't overdo it. Of all places, don't misspell or have a grammatical error here as it only makes you look as if you don't care. If that's true, why should readers care to read any more of the article. Make sure the title accurately reflects what the article is about.

Article Writing Mistake #2: Badly written summary

Most article directories allow for a summary of your article but this is not the place to stuff your keywords or repeat a keyword phrase ten times. You would be surprised how many authors think this will help when all it does is get their article immediately rejected. Create a summary that expands upon the title and draws in the reader with a little more information and a possible tease that makes them think, "Yes, I need to read more about this." One to three sentences is all it takes. I tend to write my entire article first before coming back to the summary to make sure it's the best it can be.

Article Writing Mistake #3: Failure to edit

The following was the opening of an article submitted to my site:

"Instantly, let's start at the very starting out, what's the first thing you have to do before starting a..."

The author obviously wants to stress the importance of what is to come but failing to correct this rhetorical abuse through editing defeats the purpose entirely. Remember: First drafts never make good reading. Editing is what makes good writing.

Article Writing Mistake #4: If you hire a ghost writer, check their work

I see way too many articles where a ghost writer is hired and English is not their native language. There's nothing wrong with hiring someone to write articles for you but if you don't review and approve the results, then I have no sympathy for you. Turning over the entire process of writing and submitting articles on your behalf is a sure way to make your company look stupid.

Article Writing Mistake #5: Use the preview button

Article directories don't have any time to format your articles for you. If you can't take the time to properly format your article into paragraphs with spacing, don't count on getting your articles published very much. After pasting your article into the submission form, use the preview button to see if its properly formatted. If not, go back and make the corrections.

Article Writing Mistake #6: Writing in the passive voice

What separates great writing from the rest is writing in the active voice.

Passive: The boy was bitten by the dog.

Active: The dog bit the boy.

Eliminate words such as was, were, been, have, has, and had. Replace them with an active verb or direct voice. Your articles will stand out head and shoulders above the rest if you edit with this in mind.

Article Writing Mistake #7: Failure to deliver

Perhaps the most common, this mistake is surely the deadliest of all. Each part of a submitted article is designed to pull the reader further along a path of information that eventually leads to your website. The title grabs, the summary teases and the article body delivers. But if it doesn't, what makes you think the reader will click for more information? They won't if you fail to deliver on what was promised.

If you ignore the advice given in this article, I can guarantee mediocre results from your article marketing efforts. Will you take this article to heart and eliminate these mistakes from your article submissions? If so, you can be sure that your article marketing will achieve maximum results.

Charles Gregory is a freelance writer and owner of Ezine Article Exchange where submitting quality articles means free website advertising for you.

The Death Diary - (A Short Story)

The Death Diary of
Troy Burroughs

Extract #2
Day Three and Four of Troy Burroughs

Day Three

Being dead is going to take some getting used to. According to earth time this would be day three of my so called, death. I keep looking down on North America, I guess it's still home to me for the moment anyway. A few hours ago, I caught a comet, the tail end of it and I noticed it was quite slow compared to my form of travel, that is, I think I was going as fast as 200,000-thousand miles an hour, and it somehow zigzagged, and jumped off or out of its orbit and fell back into it somehow-kind of speaking-by an asteroid belt is where I was, I'd estimate somewhere around twenty to fifty million miles from earth, who can say, surely not me for certain.

I thus far, have learned something in this new development of mine, that being, traveling in space in what I call shape-traveling, for that is all I am, simple a shape with some kind of energy source to me, one could even call it residue, soul or whatever they wish, a part of another dimension with substance: I used the thrust of the comet, the velocity-I used it somehow, not quite knowing how, allowing it to push me, that is, more likened to throwing me-hurdling me I would guess, out into the empty part of space, the black airless cold space...I actually felt something to my shape: I sensed something also, something like. the several world surrounding me produced other forms of life, ghosts maybe, demonic being trying to escape earth's hell, other aliens looking down through their portholes, through layers of time and space and echoes, and so forth. I felt like a new born baby learning everything all over, I do think I have some source of natural feeling to my movements, should I want to use them, up to now its been more on the order of the elements in space moving me you might say. I, at this point cannot name it but I'd like to kick it, to see if how much control I have here in this new environment.

Nevertheless, what I was going to say, had on my mind to say, before I got into what I just mentioned, was-here I am, back where I started from, the day I died, overlooking earth, but again, here I am, in this asteroid belt-if you get what I mean, think-travel and there you are, among really simple, big fat rocks everywhere in space, and earth is no exception, other than it is more colorful.

Well, to make a diary note shorter, once seen is enough, and so it was a good visit, but I must learn how to control it. It is like going to the Rocky Mountains or possibly I could qualify it to equal the Bad Lands in South Dakota, going back there back and forth like a yoyo. But again, once seen, that is enough, unless this kind of thing is your thing, and it is not my thing by far: I mean, I'm only on day three, and this is what you get. I think that area is best for campers, not me. I'd prefer hotels, but I suppose you don't need them out here. The more I think of it, something is missing. Oh well, I'll investigate. Now it's becoming evening time over Minnesota (St. Paul, is my home town (where my wife lives, Rosa), the sun is going down.

Day Four

Morning time in Minnesota, the sun is coming up, I got an inkling, I got to go back to see how my little wife is doing, Rosa. I know for a few hours after I died, she was upset, crying, hysterical. I didn't know what to do for her, she couldn't see me, and I did not know how to communicate with her other than trying to set a mood, by way of producing calmness about her immediate space: prayer helped.

She got me to the hospital, and I know I was getting better, a heart attach I heard them say. Then she stayed overnight, and I died in the middle of the night, she had fallen to sleep. I was happy about that, happy because she was so tired: everyone thought I was in a coma, but I was really between life and death, a new kind of order they didn't anticipate, one that is dreamy like, a stage before death, one you can see about you, hear sounds and sense people, but cannot talk, it is not a coma, although folks think it is, or could be, it is in-between where you touch the hand of Christ, but cannot feel it, only see it, and where your pours are filled with the light of God. Then I died, and got sent here, not sure for how long thought.

For the longest moment, I hovered over the bed, looking at her, but I had no power to say or do anything-that was of course after the in-between period, where I was in a dream like world. Now that I think of it, I was in shock-kind of shock, after the in-between took on pure death, then she woke up, and as I was saying I was hovering over her, looking down, I didn't feel the grief as she was feeling, but a separation from my body, in the sense of emptiness from a shell: So many experiences at once.

That little Inca wife of mine just cried and cried, and hugged me, I wanted to comfort her, but she'll have to go through it like me someday, if the Lord willing I'll be there to comfort her.

Anyways I am now in my old house, hovering about. She's got my urn next to my mother's, she had me cremated today. I missed the funeral; I guess they had a small one at the cremation area. No one showed up from my side of the family, as expected, no problem; it was all grieved out long ago, and better for it, I prefer quite times. I think Rosa is going to take my urn, and my mother's and put it into the Huancayo, Peru, and Cemetery, in one of those vaults, she was a good wife.

She's crying again. I wonder if I can somehow let her know I'm here, and all right. I should pray, matter of fact, I thought I would get to see the Lord by know, Jesus Christ, but first things first, I heard a voice say that, It think it was Serr'el, my guardian angel, he had a hell of a job with taking care of me, guarding me while on earth, I hope I don't get a job like his, too much grief and wondering. I get the chills just thinking of his name. I also get the feeling I have to polish myself up to meet the Lord, you know, kind of take care of business, Elvis used to say that. I know he is not far away, -and I thank Him for his patience.

Now back to my little Rosa, she is sitting in my big sofa chair in the living room, tears are still coming down. Let's see if I can do something to let her know I'm present (I told her once, we cry-during our grieving period, or time, for the great times we had, that is called sadness, not depression, sadness says, those times were all worth while, I hope she remembers that).

As I said, and I shall repeat, there she is, sitting in the sofa chair, I know what I'll do, I'll make noise like walking on the floor, footsteps, not too creepy, just light enough for her to know I am with her. But how do I do that, I don't weigh anything? Too many questions for simple things; but you know I felt the thrust of the comet; yaw, yaw, that's it, creates energy from energy. As I step one foot in front of the other, you can hear my footsteps, and see the rug impressions of my feet, it is taking all my energy to produce these footsteps, she's looking up, now she looking around: look down, down little wife, look down. She doesn't look down. She's getting a little scared, I better stop. Now she rests back into the chair, she's thinking though.

She got up to check the hallway, now the window. I can't do that again, I got to practice; I guess a spirit can even loose energy. She went back to the chair; it's dark outside, the TV is on, it is drowning out my footsteps. For her the day is young, for me, now sure, I guess down here it's as it would be, forever long, just a day but with light and darkness, I don't feel the heat or cold. I'm going to try something else. I'm going to stand in the archway to the living room and try to make my configuration, my spirit form light up, just a bit, just a slight emotion, if I darken it, it might scare her. I noticed I had one in outer-space.

[A long pause]

It's morning now, dark morning, so it must be pretty early, she is cleaning the house, getting ready to face the day, she notices my chair, the dinning room light is off so is the kitchen light, she turns it on and a little electric heater emitting heat she turns off in the bedroom, she is facing the mirror in the bathroom. This will be my best try think, if only she focuses hard on the mirror; I'll try to reflect my shape.

Here I go, MMMMMMMM-Materializing [light starts to fill the mirror a faded light, dull but pronounced nonetheless in a spiritual form. She's looking at me, rubbing her eyes, I'm loosing my energy source, and it is like holding your breath trying to get this light out. She's leaning forward, squinting her eyes.

[Middle of the Night]

Got a new idea, I'll enter her dreams, slowly, if this is possible, and I heard the nightmare demon can do it all the time, unless you pray for them not to. Therefore, why cannot a good spirit like me do it? That of course a question for me, one I'll answer by trying to do, what I'm not sure I can do.

I'm not sure how you do it, but I got a sense of how will come-I'll sit by her and just whisper in her ears, and try to create a sense of me, and she will picture me, and I will let her know all is well: "Rosa, Rosa, Rosa, Rosa, Rosa..., all is well, I love you, always have, it is me, I'm all dressed in fogy white, I'll be waiting for you and we'll travel around the world, no, better yet, around the worlds, and into new galaxies."

She sees me, visualizing me says, in her dream world (I hope she remembers and writes it down): "...yes, yes, I DO see you," she says.

"I'm fine Rosa, I'm doing ok, I miss you and I'll be around should you need me, just call on me. Like my mother used to do, remember how she kept us from the fire?"

She's crying in her sleep, says: "...no, no don't go.'"

"But I can't stay too long; it takes too much whatever it is, energy and like the bee, remember the bee in the bottle, he lost his energy to fly, then he could hardly walk trying to climb that glass bottle, then I set him free and he nourished himself in the grass, and he regained his power, and flight, and few away; perhaps for another day."

She went back to sleep, she's stop crying. She's breathing better now. I think she'll remember this dream as more realistic than non-fiction, or symbolic, I hope.

Originally written, 7-3-2006
10-22-2008 (Revised and reedited)

See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

The Creative Writer's Secret to Making a Living Writing

Creative writers! You can make a lot of money writing for newspapers. The writing is easy, you don't have to worry about "Show, Don't Tell," and you can resell the articles all over the country with simultaneous submissions.

Most newspapers need a reporter for PTA meetings and sometimes for sports events. You will make about $15 for each article, and $5 for each picture they use. A normal 35 mm camera is usually good enough.

Most average sized cities have a local newspaper that accepts admissions from amateur writers. This is your market. If you have political views you want to share, the Opinion Editor or Op-Ed section is a good place to start. Write with conviction and zest and the editor will most likely accept your piece. He will, however, edit it for grammar and cut parts he deems unnecessary. If they have a guideline, follow it to the letter.

By most people's standards, $15 to $20 isn't much, but if you write an article about an upcoming holiday and resell it all over the nation, you can easily make $200 on it.

Make a file on the newspapers that accept your work. This is your gold mine. These are the people you send Christmas cards to - the people you become personally acquainted with - the people you network with - and the people you become friends with. These people are your livelihood - and this is how writers make a living. Maybe not a plush living, but a modest one. It isn't easy, but it works.

When you write articles, you have to be fast. You don't worry a lot about how you phrase things as long as you use (near) proper English. Most of the rules you learned for writing short stories won't apply there. You can use passive sentences. You can "tell" instead of "showing". You don't have to use graceful sentences, but used jazzed up verbs.

Make your submissions directly to the editor. Call the newspaper to learn his or her name, and write it down. Be sure you get the spelling right. Google "U.S. Newspapers" and you can select the papers by state.

So where do you get your articles? What do you write about? Have you ever wondered how something works, or where certain things come from? How about people who have an unusual talent or a special hobby?

The secret to reselling a newspaper article is that it needs to have a broad appeal - such as an article on how Father's Day began. If you were submitting to a magazine, you would have to submit at least three to four months ahead, but not so with newspapers. Send your article in two weeks ahead.

Still having a hard time thinking of what to write about? Check the latest version of Writer's Market if you have nothing specific in mind. Browsing the non-fiction section will give you an idea of what kinds of articles are being published.

This is enough to get you off to a good start. See below for more free writer's tips!

Private tutoring, $185 for 8 wks. at Take your classes any time in 2009. Only 15 to a class. Reserve your space now! Sale ends Jan. 31, 2009. To receive more free writing tips in The Writer's Choice Newsletter, sign up at http://www.cwinst.com/newslettersignup.php

Story Endings - Ten to Avoid

A logical, satisfying ending is always required in a short story, but how do you ensure that yours is fresh and new? One of the ways is to avoid the obvious. Here are some common endings seen by editors: use them at your peril.

And then I woke up.

The 'Dallas' gambit. This approach is nothing more than a cop-out for people with no imagination. Stories should reach a logical conclusion that satisfies the reader and resolves any conflicts. This method does neither.

And then I died.

The 'Weird Tales' gambit. This one turned up regularly in horror tales during the early part of last century, until it was overplayed by HP Lovecraft, among others. A diary which ends in a string of nonsense words as a crawling terror from beyond comes for the author was fine the first time out, but most editors have seen it too many times.

And I found out I'd been dead all along.

The 'Sixth Sense' gambit. This is an old one, which is why people who were well read in the genre spotted the twist very early in M Night Shyamalan's film. An overused variation is to have someone breaking out of a coffin after a supposedly premature burial. Don't do it; the editor will see it coming from a mile away.

And they called them Adam and Eve.

The 'Bible' gambit or, as Michael Moorcock puts it, Shaggy God stories. If you start with a nuclear holocaust or human colonists on a new planet, make sure you don't use this ending or the story will be bounced back to you straight away. The other trap to avoid is having a computer become a god. That avenue was new in the '40s, but these days an editor will laugh himself out of his chair.

And then I saw the fangs, just before he bit me

The 'singles bar pick-up' gambit. With this worn-out ending, a person visits a bar and is seduced by a pale, interesting stranger who turns out to be a vampire, a ghost, a werewolf or an alien. There are several variations seen nowadays, such as same-gender meetings and graphic sex scenes before the revelation, but the stories are all the same and editors know it.

And then I caught up with the '@!* who'd done me wrong and shot the @'!** out of them.

The 'Death Wish' gambit is the beloved technique of Michael Winner fanatics and gun-nuts. It makes for a very dull story unless you can bring style, energy and a unique vision to it, in which case you'd probably be better off trying to sell it as a film treatment. There's a long tradition of revenge movies, but in the written word they all come across as being very similar. A variant on this handling is the Charles Atlas gambit, where the weedy nerd becomes a kung-fu expert to wreak revenge on his tormentors. Don't be tempted to use this angle. Editors will know what's coming.

And the next day I read in the paper that he'd died.

The 'I talked to a ghost' gambit. This practice turned up frequently in Victorian literature. It's usually no more than an anecdote turned into a story. Variations include talking to someone who is later discovered to be the victim of a plane crash, an automobile wreck or a major catastrophe. Editors see a slew of these after a natural disaster, but whatever caused the person's death, the stories are all the same.

And it was a man in a mask all along.

The 'Scooby-Doo' gambit. Pretend spooks are a clich. The whole story builds up a sense of supernatural menace, only to reveal a human agency behind it all. It won't usually get past an editor but if it does, readers will feel disappointed and let down.

And it was my evil twin; we were separated at birth.

The 'doppelganger' gambit. Stephen King got away with this in The Dark Half and Dean Koontz pulled off a variation by making both twins evil in Shivers, but unless you have their style and wit, you shouldn't attempt it. Another variation, beloved of the romantics among us, is to have the protagonist find out they're really the son, daughter or sibling of a rich family. This mode is really just wishful thinking on behalf of the writer. You shouldn't be sharing your daydreams with editors.

I'm really a dog/cat/demon/alien.

The 'non-human storyteller' gambit is tried and tested. That's the problem. If you don't leave any clues to the fact, the reader will feel the ending is a cop-out. If you do leave clues, the reader and your editor will spot the ending coming unless you're very good at disguising the fact.

Remember, people have been writing stories for a very long time. If you've read a similar ending in a story or seen it in a film, you can bet the editor will be aware of it, too. There are only so many original endings to go around; make sure yours is one of them.

William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with seven novels published in the States and three more coming in 2007/8, all in the independent fantasy and horror press. His short work and articles have appeared in the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Greece, Saudi Arabia and India. He also has three shorts produced from his scripts, and several supernatural scripts currently on option, including four shorts, and a supernatural thriller feature.

William Meikle
http://www.williammeikle.com